By Lily Weinacht
Trent Vernon of Maybell, Colo., is currently leading the tie-down roping in the CSHSRA. The 17-year-old cowboy has pursued rodeo more seriously than ever in the last few months, and he is more than pleased with the results – especially as he anticipates finishing his senior year of high school with a trip to the NHSFR.
“I’ve done rodeo ever since I was little, and I crave it!” says Trent. “I go to school but all I can think about is when I can get out and rope. I love it, and it’s something most of my family has done.” Trent’s mom, a former breakaway roper, introduced him to rodeo, and Trent often team ropes with his cousins and his grandpa, a former saddle bronc and bull rider. “My mom is the reason I can rope calves. She’s done everything she can to get me horses and calves, and take me to schools. I think she’s the reason I’m winning the tie-down right now!” says Trent. “I also look up to my grandparents – I work for them on their ranch during the summer, and my grandpa helps me with my heeling and lets me use his horses.”
Trent practices daily, often roping with his cousins – also CSHSRA competitors – who live less than a mile from Trent. He and his cousin, Cutter, team rope together in the NLBRA and have won the world title, while Trent also won the NLBRA world title in flag racing. He enjoys the camaraderie with his cousins, and once even had to borrow tack from them after he forgot all of his. “I switched all my tack from our living quarters to our stock trailer and forgot to put it back,” Trent recalls with a laugh. “It’s a good thing I have good cousins that loaned me some of theirs!”
Trent lives outside of Maybell with his parents, Bobby and Janice Edwards. He also has an older brother, Troy, and an older sister, Taylor, both of whom rodeoed in college on scholarships before getting married and starting families. Trent and Troy still enter the team roping in the CPRA, however. Trent is responsible for many of the family’s horses, including his rodeo horses, Porkchop and Taz. “We bought Porkchop as a three year old in Nebraska. He was a team roping horse, but my mom and Troy got him to breakaway rope, and when I was old enough, I started tie-down roping on him,” Trent explains. “We got Taz from the same place as Porkchop, and she started out as a calf horse, but now she’s really good at team roping.”
Though Trent would rather be roping than in the classroom, he is enjoying his senior year at Moffat County High School. “I really like welding,” says Trent. “We’re doing practice welds right now and we’ll start on a project later in the year.” In the thick of hunting season, Trent enjoys stepping out his back door to go deer hunting with his dad. The family also has a fishing camp in Tennessee – Bobby’s home state – where they go fishing once or twice a year.
Trent has roping on the brain more than anything, however. “One of my cousins bought a place in Arizona and I’m going to go down there to rope with him this winter,” he says. “I want to college rodeo, and I also want to buy my PRCA permit when I turn 18 and see where it takes me. My short-term goal is to win the state title in tie-down roping and make it to Nationals!”
